by Sam Abraham
At this many in the crowd booed Han. Some spit on the floor or jeered for him to leave. But other people in the inn clapped and stomped their feet. Li felt Xie and Anmei come to stand at her shoulder as she watched Han infect doubt among her followers.
“What is this?” Li asked Xie, shocked at Han’s questioning. “You are supposed to be in charge. How could you let the situation get so out of control?”
“This is how flimsy faith looks,” Anmei said, “when its object is only human.”
Xie gave Anmei an annoyed look and said, “The people chose to come here, in search of their savior. They seek the messiah inside, to find their own truth, as you always taught.”
Li was choosing from snarky replies when Han yelled from the stage, “Please! Please, good people of Jade, let me speak. I have been with you since the beginning. I gave up my family name for the Lady Li. My father cut me off because I sought a truth higher than money. I was baptized in the Holy Lake and took the first Communion. I beheld incredible sights just as you did, and I have seen the glory of the Jade triumph over tyranny. Is the Lady Li an incredible warrior? Yes! But is she the incarnation of Chang’e, here to show us the path to salvation? Logically, how could she be?”
At this Li felt a great yawning darkness swallow her, and remembered the recycling quarry, and Fujian Zhu. Without thinking, she pushed through the crowd.
“But how do you explain the miracle of the Holy Lake?” said another voice said, to which many threw up their arms and sang hallelujah. “Or the sky of lightning at the battle for the City of Heaven on Earth? What causes such miracles if not God? And if it is God, how could this God not be pure good, if He sent us His Eldest Daughter, Chang’e, to heal the land?”
Han considered the question and said, “Those seeking causes will always find them. And truly there must be causes for such awesome wonders. But why is it that those causes must be understood by us? Is the Universe not so large that it is more likely that a cause be mysterious to us than that we understand it? If God created the Universe, who created God? And if God does not need a creator, then why does the Universe? Is it not possible that your attribution to God is a convenience caused by fear?” Now waves of boos came, but Han raised his voice above the din. “Fear! Yes, fear that you are a small creature in a chaotic world, unsure of anything save that you do not control the breath of life, the warmth of the sun, the purity of the air, the fish in the sea. Even these have been taken from you by bankers and politicians hoarding power. Cornered on the edge of the earth, you use your last breath to claim that all this is by design? That the Lady Li’s presence proves that not only is the creator understood, but also must love you? Have you ever wondered what happens to cattle who never ask why their masters keep them fat?” And Han looked out with sad compassion.
“No,” the voice in the crowd said, and many laughed. “And for my unwavering righteousness I will be rewarded. The Lady said that those who trust in her will enter Heaven, where the Father, His Daughter Chang’e, and His Son Jesus Christ grant us eternal bliss.”
Li came to the stage as they cheered. Han shouted, “And why would the Lady equate blind trust with righteousness? Is it so we don’t challenge her claims?”
There was a time when Li would have spit in Han’s face, for he was only human. But now the doubt in Han’s voice seemed wise to her. If only she had questioned more, perhaps she would not be haunted by the dead every time she closed her eyes. She burned to beg forgiveness for her sins, to set the Jade free and be absolved.
But she also knew that she needed the Jade if she had any hope of forcing Dr. Yang to fix her and her daughter before their inevitable cancer liquified them into power plant fuel. And that meant maintaining the ruse, no matter how black it turned her heart.
Then she saw a man in the crowd staring at her, and remembered how he had once taught her about creating an enemy. Shen had aged since she’d last seen him, his hair turned white at the temples, his frown etched with lines. But he still had the same bright, proud eyes that instantly understood her.
She smiled at him and then leapt onto the stage. Before anyone could protest, she put her palms together and closed her eyes. Arcs of electricity sprang from her arms, blinding her form until her scars were hidden and she was a silhouette surrounded by light.
Of all of them, it was Han who was the first to gasp and say, “Oh my God, it’s her!”
In moments, hundreds in white began bowing, prostrating themselves upon the floor.
“Yes, brothers and sisters. I have returned!” Li intoned. “I transformed into a phoenix and flew beyond the sky, where I met my Heavenly Family.” Men and women in the room were transfixed, lifting their arms in supplication. “My Father and Younger Brother told me that, just as in the time of Noah, God is pulling water over the earth to punish the wicked. Listen not to skeptics,” she said, shooting Han a menacing glance, “for I am Chang’e, the Jade Prophet, incarnation of God on earth. My conception was immaculate, and my birth was of virgin purity, like Younger Brother Jesus Christ. Just as He saved you from sin, so too will I save your souls in these final days. If you are righteous enough to follow me beyond the great waters, I swear you will have pleasure everlasting in the world to come.”
And she could barely hear between the cries of relief as she led them in a prayer for return.
When the prayer was concluded, Li left them in waves of song. She descended from the stage and approached her old teacher. Glad to be needed, Shen brought her to stairs at the back of the hall, and led her outside, across a wooden bridge that spanned the waters to another building. When he looked back at her with concerned eyes, she turned away, pretending he could not see her scars.
They passed through a flimsy bead curtain and up another staircase to Shen’s room, which overlooked the floating camp. A woman in white stood guard, and Shen asked her to bring boiled water up to a porcelain bathtub. As the porter filled the tub, Li walked to narrow windows and gazed out at the expanse of rafts beyond, bobbing up and down in the current.
The floating camp had clearly been built in haste, with nodes converging randomly and platforms jimmied up on stilts. Tubs of dirt held carrots and beets, winter squash and spinach, coloring the wooden walkways orange and purple and green. On the edges, long poles leaned over the sea, where men angled nets like parachutes beneath the waves, drawing them up to find them splashing with tiny fish.
“This is incredible,” she said, overwhelmed.
“It was Xie’s idea,” Shen said, when the bathroom had filled with steam. “He’s become obsessed with helping the dispossessed. Come find me when you’ve had a chance to rest.”
“Stay,” she said. “We need to talk. You were supposed to wait in Anhui Province. What happened?”
Shen cleared his throat, embarrassed as Li undressed and slipped into the bath. “You put Xie in charge, remember? He went in search of you, and took the people with him. I arrived only a few days ago, after every last warrior abandoned our stronghold. Xie gave me sanctuary in exchange for the last scraps of longshui and the holodrone I brought when we left those tents – you know, the ones where Dr. Yang first showed you his research – on condition I would not challenge him as the leader of the Jade.”
The steaming water soothed Li’s aches and caused the scars on her face to sting. She closed her eyes. “You should have told me I was a science experiment,” she said. “My mother said all my dreams might just be side effects of my...condition.”
“So your father allowed you to meet her?” Shen asked, surprised.
“When you said Lao was my father, did you know that was bullshit? That I am a clone?”
Shen was silent. “Yes,” he finally admitted.
“So you have been lying to me this whole time.”
Now Shen knelt by the edge of the tub. He saw the scars snake up his student’s neck and face. Specks of her dried blood sparkled like veins of precious ore. The thought that perhaps she truly was more than mere human or hybrid haunted
him. He bowed until his forehead touched the warped wooden floor. “Only to protect you, Lady,” he said. “I swear on my life.” Shen shut his eyes, waiting for her to rip his heart out for his betrayal. But the strike never came.
“Did you know I have a daughter?” was all she said.
Shen lifted his head. “No, Lao never told me. Is she like you?”
“I think it’s your turn to tell me what you know, Laoshi.”
“Lao made a secret deal,” Shen said slowly, finding relief in the release of heavy secrets, “with Eli Warner. The nature of the tech meant it had to be a black market buy, with no regulatory oversight. We were to sell a longshui hybrid to his company, ORS, for two hundred and thirty billion kuai.”
Li was quiet, dazed by the sheer size of the price on her head. “But Lao must be rich,” she said at last. “You told me he was once Governor of Jiangsu, and sat on the Council for Harmonious Cities. Just because the Centrists wouldn’t listen to him about the Ghost Lands, is he really so spiteful that he would endanger his political career? That he would risk going to prison?”
Shen let out a small grin in spite of himself. She truly was his most gifted student in so many ways. “Let me tell you something few know about Lao Jinglai. Haven’t you ever wondered why you have only seen his holo? Why you have never met him in person?”
“He’s very busy. He can’t be everywhere at once.”
“No,” Shen said. “He cannot be anywhere. He is dead. He died more than ten years ago.”
Now Li sat up, and Shen found that he could not look her in the eyes. “When Lao was elevated to the Council, he began ascending to the inner circles of Centrist power. When the Great Nationalization outsourced management of the interior and created the Ghost Lands, he was furious. The policy went against everything he stood for. This you know. What he never told you is that by that time, he was old and sick. He started using a holo of himself as a youth, so no one would think him frail.
“He never recovered. Before he died, he was removed from the Council for refusing to appear in person. Lao felt betrayed on his deathbed, even as his memories were uploaded into an artificial intelligence algorithm. And because betrayal is what these memories last focused on, revenge is what drives the synthetic mind now containing them. The deal with ORS was just a way for Lao to finance his ambitions. His phantom seizes power in the Ghost Lands out of pride so that he can destroy the rivals who snubbed him, and prove that he was right.”
Li was quiet as the bathwater grew tepid. She touched her scars gingerly, unable to believe that her life had been so meaningless, just a game for nothing more than spite.
Shen shifted on his knees and winced from the pain of his swollen joints. “My deal with Warner was originally for your mother, but ORS insisted that the longshui hybrid smuggled out of the country should not yet be metastatic, so as to ensure maximum yield after the buy. By now you know about your shortened lifespan, yes?” He grew pensive. “Your discovery created the opportunity to sell you to ORS instead. I can only assume Lao planned to have your daughter take command in your place, and incite the Jade to ravage the Ghost Lands.”
Li turned to her teacher. “Lao’s plans must have changed. He imprisoned me and ordered my daughter to collect Dr. Yang. He had no intention of letting me go.”
“He must have decided that you are too independent to obey him,” Shen said dourly. “Well, that was a known risk. But you escaped. And my spies have learned that Yang now works for Mayor Hu of Shanghai.” He paused, pursing his lips thoughtfully. “The deal is as dead as Lao. If your daughter kidnaps the professor, she will be choosing the Tiger, one of the most powerful men in the world, as her enemy.”
“Where does that leave you?”
The humid Floodzone made Shen feel old, and he laughed sadly. “With you, Lady, at the edge. I thought I could outsmart Lao, manipulate you, control the Jade. The great propagandist!” He looked at the floor. “I could not have been more wrong. Lao has betrayed me. The Army has wiped out the Jade stronghold at the Lake. Soon they will move to kill us all. Xie usurped command of our warriors. And you, Lady, I underestimated you most of all. You deserve my head.”
“Then you owe me your life, Laoshi,” Li said, staring at beads of water between her knuckles. “Will you finally do as I command?”
“Lady,” Shen said hesitatingly, “what happened to you?”
“I am transformed,” she said, and turned to her teacher’s graying hair and defeated eyes. She put a hand on his cheek, and he leaned into her touch. “And I will not forsake my family, no matter how much they shame me. Uncle never cared for me, only for my mother. She died, unwilling to improve her station. As for my father, well. You, Laoshi, are the closest thing I have ever had to a father.”
Li’s voice wavered as she thought of her only other family. “My daughter doesn’t know about her fate. But my mother showed me exactly what will happen to us if I do nothing. I need to find her, among millions of people in Shanghai, and somehow force Yang to heal us so we can have our lives back. I can’t do it without you, Laoshi. I need your help to try and save her, even if it risks everything we have.”
Overcome by the weight of her crimes and the hopelessness of the path ahead, she put her head in her arms and wept.
Shen closed his eyes, imagining the elixir of Chang’e washing away his lifetime of sin. And he held his orphaned student as she cried softly where no one else could hear.
Part 4: Old Yang
Chapter 49 – Ge (革)
Fire In The Lake
“Secretary Shen,” said the hologram of Lao Jinglai. “How unnecessary to hear from you.”
“It is about time you answered my calls,” Shen said, as he surveyed the floating city from the roof of the Tongli Tea House. “I have your daughter, Li Aizhu.”
Everything in the flotilla, from cook pots to Jade, bobbed endlessly in the current. It kept expanding, pilgrims continuously returning with rafts and planks and entire sides of houses to cobble onto the blooming edge, so that they might hang their tents in the presence of the Second Coming.
“What do I need with that disobedient ingrate?”
Shen looked at Lao impassively, calling his bluff. “Nothing, unless the Tiger finds her first.”
Lao narrowed his eyes. “Is that a threat?”
“All Li wants to do is see her daughter, and you can make that happen. When they meet, your goons can force her to come home. Or kill her, for all I care. Then your secrets will remain silent.”
“Your little games will be the death of you,” Lao said.
Shen shrugged. “At least I still have death to look forward to. Are you going to play or not?”
Lao’s holo stared at Shen with cold eyes. “I know it was you, Shen, who released that horrible false video of me. You are the reason that I watched myself spew lies to millions that condemned my legacy. If I play your game, it will be to find you. I will name the time and place. Be there with Li Aizhu, and I will send her daughter to hear you beg for forgiveness like the dog you are.”
Then Lao’s holo collapsed, leaving Shen adrift in the current. There is no escaping the river now, old man, Shen thought, as he lit a Zhonghua cigarette and returned to his savior.
***
“Come in, Captain Xie,” Li said. They were in Shen’s quarters, sitting half in shadow. “Shen Laoshi and I need your help.”
“How can I be of service?” Xie said. His good eye could barely see her in the dim light, but his obsidian eye saw her amber aura wave wildly, spinning out of control.
“I am going in search of my daughter,” Li said. “And the Jade are going to help me.”
“It will not be easy,” Shen added. “The girl does the bidding of Lao Jinglai. We need to keep her from leaving Shanghai while we look for her. And even if we find her, we’ll still need to convince her to come with us.”
When did the Lady’s earth child, an unbeliever, become more important than destroying the Great Evil of greed and saving the d
ispossessed? Xie thought. The Lady’s scarred face seemed to match her words, as ugly as the world around him.
Seeing Xie’s hesitation, Li rose and drew him close, kissing him lightly and scrutinizing his eyes to assess the shelf life of his devotion. “You’ve shown no fear charging into battle for me,” she said coyly. “Will you rally to my banner once more?”
As if to prove the point, the One-Eyed Captain clasped her shoulders and pushed her to arm’s length. “Lady,” he said, “where is the vaccine you promised?” And when Li and Shen exchanged looks, Xie knew that there would be no more longshui. The miracle was gone.
“So,” he said, his vision of Heaven on earth evaporating like a waking dream, “you have traded the fate of all the world’s meek for one little girl?” Unable to find any trace of the divine beauty left in Li’s disfigured image, he paced to the opposite window and gazed out upon the floating camp, lamenting his misplaced meaning.
“For the chance to be a family,” Li said, unnerved by Xie’s cold dismissal. “Shen Laoshi is setting up a deal with my…with Lao Jinglai, to meet my daughter. But if my daughter is guarded my people cannot help me save her if they are adrift in the Floodzone. If we are to have our full strength, the Jade must get onto Shanghai Island.”
“It will not be easy,” Shen added ruefully. “If any try to climb the wall, cops will identify us, and then the Army will be close behind. You heard what happened to the factory in Anqing.”
Xie remembered his travels into the Floodzone to find driftwood, and the advice of evangelists. “If you have run out of your own miracles,” he said, “perhaps you should travel to the Caihong Gardens and beg the charlatans there to pray to their false idols. That is what the hopeless do, who have no way across the island’s walls. I have heard of one cleric who is able to make such prayers come true.”
